China's Lunar Calendar 2014 11-10

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/13......................................................................................................................11/6

This is one in a never-ending series—following the movements of the calendar—in Round and Square perpetuity. It is today's date in the Chinese lunar calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing. There are clusters of meaning, and they require patience, reflection, careful reading, and, well, a little bit of ethnographic fieldwork. The best place to start is the introduction to "Calendars and Almanacs" on this blog. I teach a semester-long course on this topic and, trust me, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the lunar calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. 

As time goes on, I will link all of the sections to lengthy background essays. This will take a while. In the meantime, take a look, read the introduction, and think about all of the questions that emerge from even a quick look at the calendar.

Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left
十
日
一期星

Eleventh Month, Tenth Day

Astral Period One
Monday, November 10

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月生母天
恩氣倉德

Heavenly Virtue
Maternal Granary
Engendered Vapor
Lunar Kindness

—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉吉凶
酉己丑

吉凶吉

戌午寅
中中吉
亥未卯

中中凶

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
09:00-11:00 Inauspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 In-Between

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.

————————————————— 

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
塞補時栽
穴垣插種
Cutting-out Clothing
Timely Injections
Patching Embankments
Plugging Caves

—————————————————  
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
八
乙

酉
水

危
開

Eighteenth Day (Intercalary Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yiyou (22/60)

Phase (element): Water

Constellation: Danger (12/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
(and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜
倉修嫁祭
出造娶祀
貨動納祈
財土采福
置上移入
產樑徙學
安修理出
葬開髮行
煞班
小俱天債
亡空將火不 

————
Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Households

Patterning Hair

Repairing and Building

Moving Soil

Putting-up Beams

Repairing and Opening Granaries

Capital and Product Outflow

Setting-up Production

Positioning Graves

 

Classified Balefulness

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Heavenly Fire
Everything General
Small Void-Loss

———— 
 

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 林
White, Copse
————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Information

門 磨 碓

Gate, Mortar, Pestle